Chapter 2 - LOCK THE GATES
Damon Reyes did not raise his voice.
He never needed to.
“Marcus.”
The single word brought his security chief forward.
“Full lockdown.”
Marcus's expression changed immediately.
“Everyone?”
“Everyone.”
Damon turned toward Selena.
“Take Ruby's suitcase.”
Selena blinked. “Mr. Reyes—”
“You're not leaving alone.”
“I don't want to put you in more danger.”
“You didn't.”
His eyes moved briefly toward Ruby.
“She came to me because you told her I could protect her.”
Selena's face tightened.
“I told her to find you because I didn't know who else in this house I could trust.”
That sentence landed harder than Damon expected.
Marcus heard it too.
Damon looked toward him.
“West corridor?”
“Locked.”
“Garage?”
“Being secured.”
“Outer road?”
“Two teams.”
Damon shook his head.
“One.”
Marcus frowned.
“We have enough men for two.”
“That isn't why.”
Damon crossed to the window.
The Reyes estate sat on more than forty acres north of Scottsdale, surrounded by desert, stone walls, cameras, and enough security to discourage most enemies.
The Delgatos were not most enemies.
If someone inside the house had provided them information, doubling manpower at the entrance might mean doubling the number of compromised men standing there.
“One team,” Damon repeated. “People you personally choose.”
Marcus understood.
“You think the leak is here.”
“I know the leak is here.”
Selena's breathing became shallow.
Ruby had climbed onto the bed and was trying to force the stuffed rabbit back inside her little suitcase.
Damon watched her struggle with the zipper.
There was something profoundly wrong about that image.
A child preparing to run from armed men.
He walked over.
“Can I help?”
Ruby looked up suspiciously.
“You don't know how.”
Damon nearly smiled.
“I've used a zipper before.”
“Bunny's too fat.”
“He looks like he has expensive taste.”
Ruby considered this, then solemnly handed him the rabbit.
Damon compressed the toy into the suitcase while Selena watched him with a strange expression.
Three years earlier, no one in Phoenix would have imagined Damon Reyes kneeling beside a pink suitcase while a toddler instructed him how to pack a stuffed animal.
Damon barely recognized the man doing it either.
Ruby leaned close.
“Mommy said only take important things.”
“Bunny is important?”
She looked offended.
“Very.”
“Then Bunny comes.”
He zipped the suitcase.
A knock sounded.
Marcus turned immediately.
“Come.”
One of the security men entered.
“Sir, we found something.”
Damon handed Ruby the suitcase.
“Show me.”
The security officer placed a black electronic device on the dresser.
Small.
Magnetic.
Almost invisible against the dark casing of the window alarm.
Marcus swore quietly.
Selena went pale.
“What is that?”
“A transmitter,” Marcus said.
Damon's jaw hardened.
“Where?”
“Attached behind the secondary alarm relay outside this room.”
Selena stared.
“This room?”
“Yes.”
The answer changed everything.
This was not simply about the Reyes estate.
Someone had specifically monitored Selena's quarters.
Damon turned toward the officer.
“Any others?”
“We're checking.”
“Who has access to this hallway?”
The man hesitated.
“Domestic staff. Security. Senior personnel.”
“Names.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“We'll compile them.”
“No.”
Damon looked at him.
“Now.”
Marcus pulled out his phone.
Selena moved Ruby behind her.
“Why would somebody watch my room?”
Damon had no answer he wanted to give in front of the child.
The phone call had sounded like a warning.
The transmitter was surveillance.
Those two facts did not fit neatly together.
Unless two different people were involved.
Or unless the traitor's loyalties had changed.
Marcus suddenly looked at his screen.
His face went hard.
“Damon.”
“What?”
“We lost camera seventeen.”
Damon looked toward the north side of the property.
“Technical?”
“Maybe.”
Camera sixteen disappeared.
Then eighteen.
One after another.
A line moving toward the estate.
Marcus was already speaking into his radio.
“North teams, report.”
Static.
“North teams?”
Nothing.
Damon turned.
“Move Selena and Ruby.”
Marcus pointed toward the door.
“Safe room?”
“No.”
Marcus stared at him.
“That is what it's built for.”
“And whoever planted that device knows this house well enough to reach a private bedroom.”
Damon looked at Selena.
“There's an older service tunnel beneath the east wing.”
She blinked.
“I've never seen it.”
“Most people haven't.”
Marcus frowned.
“The tunnel hasn't been used in years.”
“Which is exactly why we're using it.”
A distant boom rolled through the estate.
Ruby screamed.
The windows shook.
Selena pulled her daughter against her chest.
“What was that?”
Marcus touched his earpiece.
“North gate.”
Damon walked to the hallway.
“Explosive?”
“No confirmation.”
The lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then the estate went dark.
Emergency lighting snapped on in red strips along the floor.
Ruby began crying.
Damon turned back immediately.
“Hey.”
She looked at him.
“Remember what you did in the conference room?”
Her lip trembled.
“What?”
“You walked past a room full of scary men because your mom needed help.”
Ruby nodded.
“That was brave.”
“I was scared.”
“Brave people usually are.”
Selena stared at him.
Damon continued.
“Now I need you to be brave one more time.”
Ruby wiped her cheek with her tiny fist.
“Okay.”
“Stay with your mom. Hold Bunny. Don't let go of either.”
“I won't.”
Damon rose.
Marcus approached him.
“I need you moving too.”
“This is my house.”
“That means nothing if their plan is to kill you.”
“It means everything if they're using my people to get to Selena.”
Marcus lowered his voice.
“Why would the Delgatos care about her?”
That was the question.
Damon looked back at Selena.
She had worked at the estate for fourteen months.
Quiet.
Reliable.
Private.
Her husband, Javier Castillo, had died four years earlier in what police called a highway accident.
Damon had never asked much more.
Maybe he should have.
“Selena.”
She looked at him.
“What did your husband do?”
Her face changed.
Not dramatically.
But enough.
Damon saw it.
Marcus saw it.
Selena looked down at Ruby.
“He worked construction.”
“Only construction?”
Silence.
Damon stepped closer.
“Selena.”
“He told me construction.”
“That's not what I asked.”
Her eyes filled.
“Not tonight.”
“Tonight is exactly when.”
A burst of gunfire echoed somewhere outside.
Ruby clamped both hands over her ears.
Damon's restraint vanished.
“What did Javier do?”
Selena whispered.
“He worked for them.”
Marcus went still.
Damon's voice dropped.
“For the Delgatos?”
She nodded.
“For Rafael Delgato.”
The name cut straight through Damon.
Rafael.
The cousin Damon had killed three years earlier.
The man who had ordered the fire that killed Damon's younger sister.
Selena continued quickly.
“Javier wanted out. He said Rafael had changed. That they were hurting people who had nothing to do with business.”
“What did your husband know?”
“Everything.”
Damon felt cold.
“And what happened before he died?”
Selena began crying.
“He stole something.”
Marcus glanced toward Damon.
“What?”
“I don't know. He came home one night terrified. He told me if something happened to him, I should take Ruby and disappear.”
Damon frowned.
“Ruby wasn't born yet.”
“I was eight months pregnant.”
Another explosion sounded farther away.
Marcus's radio crackled.
A guard's voice finally broke through.
“They're inside the outer wall.”
Marcus cursed.
“How many?”
“Unknown. Multiple vehicles.”
Damon turned to Selena.
“What did Javier steal?”
“I told you, I don't know.”
“Think.”
“He had a flash drive.”
Damon froze.
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“Did the Delgatos ever search your home?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The night Javier died.”
Damon's eyes narrowed.
“They knew he had it.”
“I think so.”
“And they never found it.”
Selena shook her head.
Damon looked at Ruby's suitcase.
A strange feeling moved through him.
“Selena.”
“What?”
“Why did you come work here?”
She stared at him.
“My sister knew your housekeeper.”
“No.”
Damon stepped closer.
“Why here?”
Selena's silence answered before she did.
Finally she whispered:
“Because Javier told me that if he ever died, the safest place in Arizona would be close to the man Rafael Delgato feared most.”
Damon absorbed that.
“You used my house as protection.”
“I used your name.”
A hard laugh nearly escaped him.
At least she was honest.
Marcus turned.
“We have to move.”
Damon nodded.
They entered the hallway.
Two guards led.
Marcus followed.
Selena carried Ruby while Damon walked beside them.
The emergency lights painted the corridor blood-red.
Halfway toward the east staircase, Ruby twisted in Selena's arms.
“My suitcase.”
Selena stopped.
“Ruby, we can't—”
“I need it.”
“We'll buy another.”
“No!”
Ruby began struggling.
Damon turned.
“Why?”
The child pointed behind them.
“Daddy's thing.”
Every adult froze.
Selena stared at her daughter.
“What did you say?”
Ruby sniffed.
“Daddy's thing is in Bunny.”
Selena went white.
Damon felt the entire night rearrange itself.
“What thing?”
Ruby hugged the stuffed rabbit tighter.
“The little black one.”
Damon took one slow step toward the toy.
Selena's mouth fell open.
“Ruby, where did you get that?”
“In Bunny.”
“Who put it there?”
Ruby looked confused.
“Mommy did.”
Selena shook her head violently.
“No. I didn't.”
Ruby frowned.
Then she corrected herself.
“Other Mommy.”
Nobody spoke.
Selena stared at her daughter.
“What other mommy?”
Ruby pointed toward the dark end of the hallway.
“The lady who comes when you sleep.”
Damon's hand went instantly toward his weapon.
Marcus turned toward the corridor.
A shadow moved.
One of their own guards stepped from the darkness.
Gabriel Velez.
Damon's logistics chief.
A man who had worked for him for nine years.
A man Damon had trusted with routes, schedules, security rotations—
and access to almost every room in the estate.
Gabriel raised both empty hands.
His face was exhausted.
Terrified.
And guilty.
“Don't shoot.”
Damon's voice became deadly calm.
“You have three seconds.”
Gabriel looked at Selena.
Then at the stuffed rabbit in Ruby's arms.
“You need to give me that drive.”
Marcus aimed at him.
“You planted the transmitter.”
Gabriel nodded.
Selena gasped.
Damon stepped forward.
“You warned her.”
Another nod.
“Why?”
Gabriel swallowed.
“Because I made a deal with the Delgatos.”
The hallway seemed to contract around them.
Marcus's finger tightened against the trigger.
Damon did not blink.
Gabriel continued.
May you like
“And if we don't move in the next sixty seconds, every person in this corridor is going to die.”
Then the fire alarm began screaming.
